Modular constructivism is a style of sculpture that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s and was associated especially with Erwin Hauer and Norman Carlberg. It is based on carefully structured modules which allow for intricate and in some cases infinite patterns of repetition, sometimes used to create limitless, basically planar, screen-like formations, and sometimes employed to make more multidimensional structures. Designing these structures involves intensive study of the combinatorial possibilities of sometimes quite curvilinear and fluidly shaped modules, creating a seamless, quasi-organic unity that can be either rounded and self-enclosed, or open and potentially infinite. The latter designs have proved useful and attractive for use in eye-catching architectural walls and screens, often featuring complex patterns of undulating, tissue-like webbing, with apertures which transmit and filter light, while generating delicate patterns of shadow.
Writing in Architecture Week (August 4, 2004), Hauer explains that "Continuity and potential infinity have been at the very center of my sculpture from early on."Hauer made an extensive study of biomorphic form, especially what he calls "saddle surfaces," which combine convex and concave curvature and thus allow for smooth self-combination, sometimes in multiple dimensions. Another inspiration is the sculpture of Henry Moore, with its fluid curves and porosity.
Hauer's enthusiasm caught the imagination of his colleague at Yale, Norman Carlberg. Both were devoted students of the arch-formalist Josef Albers. Indeed, from the beginning, there was in this modular approach to sculpture an implicit formalism and even minimalism which held itself aloof from some of the other artistic trends of the time, such as the pop art and post-modernism that were just beginning to emerge. As Carlberg recalls, within his artistic circle "you analysed, you looked at something, but you looked at it formally just for what it was and the message was almost always out of it."
Screens to Infinity by Erwin HauerIn the 1950s, Austrian-born sculptor Erwin Hauer designed and built architectural screens and walls whose complex and intriguing geometry attracted much admiration at the time. But they have been largely forgotten, and some have even been destroyed. Here are his thoughts on one example of this extraordinary work.
Continuity and potential infinity have been at the very center of my sculpture from early on. I derived the notion of a continuous surface primarily from my studies of biomorphic form. This was greatly reinforced by my first encounter with the works of Henry Moore, who combined the dominant continuity of surface with an unprecedented cultivation of interior spaces within his sculpture.
The combination of these two factors inevitably led to the emergence of saddle surfaces, so named because they resemble a horse saddle, fusing convex and concave curvature. This kind of surface, while present in organic nature and in sculpture derived from it, has never received much attention in art, except in medieval armor and, beginning in the 1940s, in the works of Moore, Naum Gabo, and Antoine Pevsner.
More recently, sculptors with topological interests have been enjoying the marvelous opportunities that the saddle (or, as they call it, the anticlastic) surface offers. In architecture, saddle-type roofs also emerged. They were pioneered by Felix Candela with his thin-shell concrete structures and by Frei Otto with his hghi-tech tent structures.
"Design 1" (1950)
In 1950 Moore's saddle surfaces influenced my sculpture "Design 1." This sculpture evolved into a repeat pattern because of the fact that the saddle surface refuses to permit the closure of form. It contains the seed of infinite expansion and, when used as a module, continues to expand while it goes through repeating convoluted configurations.
Moore had tamed his saddle surfaces by keeping them embedded within a dominant convex topography of his biomorphic sculptures. I permitted their drive toward infinity to take its course, simply to find out what would happen.
The three-dimensional modules I created had boundaries lacking closure and found completion only when joined by replicas of themselves. Thus, multitudes of modules were aligned, much like tiles, adding up to create surfaces that were continuous throughout the entire structure.
Design 1 emphasizes the interaction between the screen and the light. Its appearance varies dramatically in relation to the source of light and the position of the viewer. The myriad apertures of the screen subtly change shape as we perceive them from different angles.
Depending on the light and our distance from the screen, we may notice that these apertures tend to configure as patterns of large, overlapping circles, or outline massive solid forms weaving in and out of the plane.
Discovering Light
Light hitting the screen from the front accentuates the continuous, meandering linear patterns that traverse it apparently infinitely, much like the continuo in baroque music. Between these lines, in diffuse light, the surface is shaded with subtle gradients everywhere. Strong light, however, will create striking shadow patterns on the surface of the screen and beyond. If the light source is the sun, these patterns will change with the hour and the season.
For all of its richness, however, this front-lit sculptural landscape pales in comparison with the back-lit screen. When the light comes from behind, it articulates the individual spaces contained within the wall.
Suffused with luminescence, these normally unnoticed interior voids come to our attention for the first time, revealing wonderful, unfamiliar characteristics. All of the internal and most of the external shapes are bounded by saddle surfaces.
While we are familiar with the diffusion of light by a convex surface, and with the concentration and focusing of light by a concave surface, we generally have not experienced what happens when light hits a surface that combines both curvatures simultaneously, such as the saddle.
Light that pours into the wall from the opposite side seems to adhere to the surface, to wrap around the sculpted forms, and to illuminate even those parts of the surface that face away from the source of light. The complex screen transforms the light so completely that the wall appears to radiate far more light than would pass through a flat plane with comparable holes punched through.
The module for Design 1 originated with the formal concept of two opposing bridges that partially contain an interior space. Those bridges are fitted diagonally into a square tile and are connected along the edges to form a single entity.
The shape of the outline of the openings within each tile may bring to mind the clover leaf of a highway overpass or, in its most spacious expansion, the line formed by the stitches of a baseball. A number of these tiles are joined edge to edge and oriented the same way so that the surfaces of contiguous modules flow seamlessly into each other.
Only when a certain number of modules have been assembled does a new configuration emerge, that of a great circle. These sets of aligned and overlapping circles have been a rather universal pattern in various cultures worldwide. However, in Design 1 it was not a planned feature but surprised me by emerging during the assembly of the first dozen tiles. Subsequently and by choice, it became the basis for some of my later designs.
The screen walls developed between 1950 and 1959 were undertaken as purely sculptural studies based on a modular structure; however, their potential for architectural application was soon evident. Beginning in 1954, I added certain features to the designs to facilitate their architectural use.
